Bishop Joel “Bong” Baylon
(MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
Bishop Joel Baylon, chairman of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care, said PDLs should be included because they are vulnerable to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) due to the situation in the country’s jails.
“It goes without saying that even PDLs deserve to receive assistance just like any other ordinary citizen, especially because their situation (in many congested jails) makes them ever vulnerable to the COVID-19 virus,” he said in an interview Wednesday, March 3.
Last year, Baylon joined calls for the immediate release of vulnerable inmates in view of the growing number of PDLs testing positive of the COVID-19.
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Bishop Joel “Bong” Baylon
(MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
“It is never right to kill people, even if it is done by the State,” CBCP-ECPPC chairman Bishop Joel Baylon said in an interview Thursday.
“Justice is never punitive nor vindictive, otherwise we go back to the ancient principle of ‘lex talionis,’ an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, which is no longer accepted,” he added.
The Legazpi prelate said there are other ways to make people responsible and accountable for the wrong they have done.
“Bringing back the death penalty merely justifies the idea that it’s okay to kill people,” Baylon said.